Naureen Hassan Comes Out of Retirement to Lead DriveWealth

Naureen Hassan, who retired as president of UBS Americas last July, has joined DriveWealth, the brokerage-as-a-service provider, as global CEO. She succeeds Michael Blaugrund, who will take on a newly created role at the NYSE’s owner, Intercontinental Exchange, his former employer.

Hassan has decades of experience in digital and product innovation; most recently, she led UBS Americas, succeeding Tom Naratil. She had responsibility for 25,000 employees and spearheaded UBS’s integration of Credit Suisse in the Americas. She also oversaw the expansion of UBS’s digitally customized banking services, the build-out of wealth management’s digital capabilities, electronic strategy and platforms, and smart technologies and advanced analytics.

When she retired from that role in July 2024, the bank appointed Rob Karofsky as president of UBS Americas and co-president of global wealth management. Iqbal Khan was also named co-president of global wealth management. 

Hassan is also the former vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Prior to that, she held top digital roles at Morgan Stanley and Charles Schwab.

At DriveWealth, she’ll be tasked with leading operations and driving the company’s growth and expansion across markets

“Naureen has a proven track record as an industry innovator and disruptor and is the perfect person to lead DriveWealth through our continued evolution and next phase of growth,” Robert Cortright, DriveWealth founder and executive chairman, said in a statement. “She joins us during a period of accelerating growth, and we look forward to all that is to come under her visionary leadership.”

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DriveWealth was founded in 2012 by Cortright, who believed that investing in the U.S. stock market should be accessible globally. The company offers brokerage services, including 24-hour trading and fractional share ownership, to an ecosystem of B2B partners that includes, among others, the direct-to-consumer personal finance application Revolut and, for several months in 2019, custodian and clearing firm Altruist.

Last year, the company was granted a brokerage license from the Bank of Lithuania, marking its expansion into Europe.

“DriveWealth has grown by opening doors to new opportunities for investors in new markets and we will continue to work toward realizing the company’s potential as the market’s most trusted embedded investing technology partner,” Hassan said in a statement.